Let Me Burn Twice
by VivaGrazia
Summary: Skye just has one question. Alright, so she has a few... but the most important of which would definitely have to be: who the hell is Daisy?
1. Nemo

**Summary:** Waking up from a mission, Daisy has lost a couple years of memories and must cope with the abrupt changes of her life.

 **Notes:** Hive will be the main villain in this once we get there. Also, Lincoln and Daisy are dating on the show in 3B (I think) and since that's when this takes place they would be dating here, though I do not touch on it very much.

 **Let Me Burn Twice**

The brain is an interesting tool.

This is a subjective statement, of course. It's often been compared to a computer, though it has far more limitations and, in other ways, extensions than such, but this certain comparison is why she finds it rather remarkable. She likes computers.

Computers have memory and storage, as does the brain. Though with computers it's all rather clear-cut. You click 'save' and _bam_! That adorable picture of the puppy-esque kitten is now on your desktop, or the video of you dressed in Iron Man cosplay is put in your "never to be seen by anyone EVER" folder.

The brain on the other hand has two forms of memory. You may know this – short term and long term ring any bells?

What you may not know is that the average short-term memory only lasts twenty seconds.

Ok, you might have known that one. But did you know that with long term memory, sometimes our brains don't even bother to keep the whole thing? Our mind tries to save storage place, and will only keep part of a memory and rely on the brain to make-up the rest of it when that file is accessed. Like, filling in the gaps with the most plausible answer.

 _O_ r maybe you didn't know that memory begins twenty weeks after conception in the womb.

Skye had not known this. She didn't know anything about this subject just a few hours ago as a matter of fact, but people had been calling her Daisy. That just didn't make sense. So: memory studies.

Still not making sense?

Skye doesn't remember being Daisy. She doesn't remember being Daisy even though everyone else seems to. Her father may have called her that after her twenty weeks in the womb, but she doesn't discredit her brain for losing such early memories -even if it's true that's when they start.

It's everyone else that's telling her she's Daisy, that she's been Daisy, even though she doesn't recall it. Long term wise. (She remembers the tall blonde chick calling her Daisy a few minutes ago, thank you very much. Even if… she can't remember that woman's name. Skye thinks it was sort of manly..)

Anyway.

Key memories Skye can currently recall: hacking SHIELD, joining SHIELD, being shot, recovering from being shot while a man-handing Asgardian came to town, and trying to find the guy responsible for her being shot: AKA, the clairvoyant.

Which was why what had come next was so unnerving.

Had she fallen asleep on her computer, searching the deep web for any traces of this guy? Possibly. Probably. Well, yes. Is that currently her last recalled memory? Maybe so.

But she had _not_ been in an old, near-vacant warehouse. She had not been in a tact suit and she had not _not_ been on the BUS. Most importantly, she had certainly not been alone.

So waking up in those conditions was not the most reassuring thing to happen in her life.

Skye had a pounding headache when she came to, which was the first thing she had noticed. The air smelled stale and musky. It caused her to scrunch her nose in distaste as she raised fingers to her head to check for injury.

That's when she noticed the gloves and large adorned cuffs on her wrists. Some kind of gauntlets?

"What the…" she mumbled out.

"Daisy!"

She yelped.

Skye turned, her head screaming against the sudden movement as it sent another jab of pain through her.

A blonde guy quickly moved down to her level, taking a knee next to where she held herself propped up off the ground. There was concern, _real_ and _nervous_ concern, on his face.

Skye shook her head minutely. "I'm not-"

"Campbell!" came a deep shout. "You find her?"

"She's over here!" he exclaimed back, though Skye had to wince at the volume.

A very large- and by large, Skye meant _jacked as hell-_ black man rounded the corner with similar held concern. "Damn Tremors, you had me worried there," he told her.

Was that another name? Daisy, Tremors… who did these people think she was?

Before Skye's running-on-backup-power brain could protest, two more people she didn't recognize came about.

"Why are you lot shouting to each other?" asked an English man. "We're on bloody comms. Nearly blew out my ear drum!"

The first two people shook their heads to dismiss the man, but the newcomer blonde woman didn't so much as acknowledge him. She was staring – again with the concern - at Skye.

"Daisy, are you ok?" asked the blonde. "We thought they had you for sure."

"Who?" Skye croaked, her voice feeling rusty. She coughed, rethinking her question before they had the chance to answer. "I- I think you people are confused. I'm not Daisy."

They certainly showed confusion then, shocked faces giving each other estranged looks. They were definitely cut from SHIELD cloth, or some similar spy agency. Skye could tell by the clothes. (Quite literally cut from SHIELD cloth in this case.)

"Did you hit your head or something?" asked the Brit.

Skye was starting to get scared. "I'm not sure."

"Do you recognize us?" asked the blonde woman, gesturing to her little group.

Skye shook her head nervously. Why would they _all_ think they knew her? God, what if they were a part of Centipede. What if they were _tricking_ her-

"What if she's been possessed or some nonsense?" said English. "Bloody Hydra…"

"Hey, it's ok," said the muscled man calmly as he watched her face fall to distress. "But uh, you might be the one confused. We certainly all know you, but you don't know us? There's a common denominator in there."

Skye looked down, contemplating. That did make sense…

"Don't worry," said the blonde guy as he warmed her up with a friendly smile. "We'll get you back to base. Coulson will know what to do."

Skye perked up. "Coulson?"

"Yeah!" exclaimed the Brit. "You know Coulson, right?"

"Of course," Skye started, beginning to pick herself up. She had still been half on the ground. "He's-"

There was a sound. The smallest of sounds, but it was there.

Three of the people before her went for their guns.

"We've got movement," said the blonde woman. Hidden behind some storage crates, they were all at a fair vantage point. But in order to get the upper hand the maybe/maybe not agents had to inch forward. The blonde guy stayed behind Skye. His hand was kept caringly close to her own, but he was on alert mode now. He didn't have a weapon, though he moved his hands abruptly and-

Sparks flew. From his hands. Electricity was spouting from this dude's palms!

Skye gulped, staring wide-eyed at the sight. This guy was either a gifted or Centipede had found a new super soldier serum. That organization might have wanted her dead before, but now they clearly wanted to take her in under the impression they were friendlies. Skye wasn't sure of the why, but there was no way she was going to stick around to find out.

While all four of their attentions were held elsewhere, Skye inched away from the hand of the man beside her. Once confident he wouldn't notice too quickly, she swiftly picked herself off the ground and ran in the opposite direction. It was still only moments later she heard his confused voice.

"Daisy? Daisy!"

"Tremors!"

Skye ran as fast as she could, completely unsure of where she was going. Before her was a clear dead-end though, so she had to make a turn. She did, but outstretched arms awaited her move and grabbed her shoulders to still her.

Skye struggled but briefly, because the moment she caught the person's eyes she felt nothing but relief.

"May," she sighed. "Thank god. I've been so confused."

"Daisy? What's going on?"

Skye's heart plummeted as she gasped a breath of air.

"You too?" she croaked.

May studied her face briefly. "What?"

" _Daisy,"_ she stressed.

May was lost, trying to find her eyes. She looked more concerned than Skye thought to have ever seen her. "You called me Daisy," said Skye. She pointed behind her. "Those people have been calling me Daisy!"

"Hydra?" guessed May, as if Skye would know what that meant.

"Who the hell is Hydra?" Skye asked. If she weren't so freaked out, she might have taken a moment to soak in this moment, as she was fairly certain she saw honest-to-god shock on Agent May's face.

Skye felt a sort of trembling, then. Small tremors from beneath her feet, vibrations. She looked around to see the crates rattling, the sound of the windows and stray items clattering against one another. The other people had caught up now, trying to catch their step in the shaking.

"Is that an earthquake?" Skye wondered out loud. "May, where are we?"

"She doesn't know," breathed the blonde man. Skye was fairly certain she heard the Englishman huff, "oh not this again…"

Skye didn't have time to ponder what that meant before May was turning her attention back to her.

"Skye?" May asked, her voice tinged with question.

" _Yes,"_ she said with immense relief. "What, have I been possessed or something? Did you name some demon possessing me _Daisy?"_

May stared at her blankly, so Skye gave a quick questioning glance to the rest of the group.

"Not that we know of," said the Brit. "But I'm starting to wonder…"

"What do you remember?" May asked.

"Well… I _would_ say everything. I don't think I have gaps or whatever," said Skye. "But uh, we sent Lorelei and Sif back to Asgard yesterday. I fell asleep chasing leads."

"Lady Sif…" pondered the blonde girl. "That's who wanted to take Daisy to Asgard."

Skye could have laughed. She almost did, but she just snorted. "Asgard? Ok, I can pretty much guarantee you that if I got an invite to Thor's home world there is no way I'd be here right now." Skye paused. "Except, I'm not really in this current predicament by choice, anyway…"

May basically ignored her, directing her attention to the blonde. "That's Sif, but Daisy-" May shook her head, " _Skye_ is remembering her first visit."

"She came back? But she was just here, right?" Skye asked, looking at May pleadingly. "Right?"

May sighed. "We need to get you to Fitz and Simmons."

Which was good news, Skye thought. They were blabbermouths and hell if she couldn't use one of those right about then. Because, despite her best efforts, the people she was with would not tell her what was going on. Even May! Though, May had never exactly been the talkative type…

They got onto a jet.

"Where's the BUS?" Skye asked.

Silence.

"Was that shaking an earthquake?"

Crickets.

"Is Hydra a person, place, or thing?"

That brought about some exasperated stares, but not much by the way of explanation.

Basically the only thing these people did tell her was their names. Agents Lance Hunter, Mack, Lincoln Campbell, Bobbi Morse – though she insisted Skye call her Bobbi, and Joey Gutierrez. Joey had been the culprit of the noise that had distracted the other agents earlier.

"Ok, I realize you're all being kind of tight lipped in case you set me off or something, which makes me kind of scared as to what information you're hiding anyhow-" Skye started pointedly, "but I _saw_ this guy's hands spark. Literally." She looked directly at Campbell, as she recalled his name was. "Can you just tell me what that was? A weapon, or are you… a powered person?"

For a moment Skye thought he was going to tell her. He merely pursed his lips though, and turned to May. In askance. Surprisingly, she nodded.

"I'm a gifted… Skye," he said, pausing to think before her name. "My race is called Inhumans."

"Race? What, like an alien?" she asked.

Campbell grinned. "More like alien DNA."

"Wow. Ok, cool. And you're on the team?" She turned to May. "He's an agent?"

" _He's_ a rookie," she said.

"Yeah, but…" Campbell started, giving her a half smile she couldn't help but think was cute. Lord, did she have a crush on this guy? Were these 'he's a cutie' feelings from her memory? "I'm your rookie."

Skye's eyebrows shot up. " _My_ rookie? But, barely a day goes by when I'm not called rookie by my own SO." She paused. "Hey… speaking of Ward, where is the emotionally challenged?"

That's when things stilled again. Way quieter than before, with very little fidgeting.

"May," whispered Skye. "Is he…?"

"He's not dead," she said sharply. At least Skye could be reassured of that, because May's tone made it quite clear there should be no more questions. She brought two fingers up to play with her hair, but there was none dangling down the side of her lower neck. She grabbed higher and higher until _finally_ she caught the first strand.

She couldn't help but squeak.

* * *

They got off Zephr 1 (that was the new plane's name; which was _so_ not as homey as the BUS) and into the base.

A _secret_ base. Had a codename and everything: The Playground.

May told Campbell to show Skye where the lab was. She didn't know why she couldn't stay with a familiar face, but the gifted wasn't so bad. If he was really her rookie… maybe they were pretty close?

 _If_ she really was this Daisy character they told she was (and that was a giant 'if'). Skye honestly didn't understand what was going on.

As they headed for the lab, Skye heard the telltale signs of Fitzsimmons' voices.

"-and that makes it my fault!"

"Jemma, please, stop. I can't stand you blaming yourself."

"How can I not, Fitz? He died saving me. He was in that hellish place for years and I ripped reprieve away from him just so I could go home after mere months!"

There was genuine hurt in Simmons' voice, and soon the tears added to it were unmistakable.

"If you want me to say that I wish you'd sacrificed your life for his, I can't do that, Jemma." Skye and Campbell finally moved into the room, tentatively, but they saw how Fitz enveloped her. "I care for you too much."

" _Ehem,"_ coughed Campbell loudly. The two split apart as though they were hot.

Skye scowled. "Points for tact," she whispered sarcastically.

"Hey guys," Campbell said strongly as he walked forward into the unfamiliar lab.

"Hi Lincoln," they both muttered half-heartedly.

"You two got the message about… her, right?" he asked.

Simmons gave Skye quite a pathetic half smile, and Fitz didn't even try to look at her.

It was heartbreaking.

Jemma nodded. "Yes. Come here, Skye, I'll take a look at you."

Campbell gave her a squeeze to the shoulder, meant to be reassuring as he was handing her off, but these were the people she knew. Of course she was more comfortable with them! Still, she gave him a grateful smile.

"How do you feel?" she asked, gesturing for Skye to sit down. Fitz hovered, arms across his chest. He'd gotten a haircut, she noted, as well as his stubble having grown out. He looked good, but somehow, she preferred the old style.

Jemma had changed her hair as well, though it was a bit subtler. Nothing like Skye's massive chopping…

"I feel right as rain," she said truthfully. "I had a headache when I first woke up, but now that that's gone, I can focus on how incredibly weird everything is. We all got moved to a _base_?"

That brought out a small smile in Jemma, as though she were reminiscing on something particularly funny. "We basically had to come to the Playground after SHIELD collap-" she cut herself off, frowning. "Um, how much did the others tell you?"

Skye crossed her arms. "Not much of anything, really…"

Fitz came into her line of sight. "So they didn't even tell you about Hydra?"

Skye shook her head. "They mentioned it, but no one would tell me what it meant. What _is_ it?"

It was then that Skye figured Fitzsimmons would do one of their shared looks, telepathically deciding whether to forfeit such information to Skye. But instead, they stared off into opposite directions. Downward, separately pondering.

"I think we could catch you up a bit… but first, what's the last thing you remember?"

* * *

Hydra was from World War II. Captain America's time, and had apparently come "out of the shadows" to put SHIELD in the ground. They survived, but by the skin of their teeth.

It had taken a toll on everyone. She'd yet to see Coulson, but she could tell Fitz and Simmons weren't in the best place. That tall blonde (Skye couldn't recall her name and was too embarrassed to ask again) came down to help them with Skye's medical exam. She wasn't the most cheerful person on the block as well, though she was honestly better than most.

Eventually they told Skye she had some sort of amnesia, though they had no clue what had caused it. She'd been taking on some Hydra goons when her comms had gone out –because she was a full-fledged SHIELD field agent, apparently, - and they found her lying on the ground like that.

When she asked about the Daisy thing, they said that her amnesia just happened to take her back to before she changed her name. Skye couldn't believe she'd switch it from the one she'd chosen herself unless she'd found her birth parents, but that was, in fact, exactly what had happened.

Though of course her team was then sketchy on those details as well.

So she could deal with the changing her own name and becoming a field agent thing, maybe… but when she went to her bunk to get dressed, she'd found her entire wardrobe had morphed as well.

She'd chopped off her hair and taken away her own style, flannel! Her favorite linen in the world. It felt like her identity had been taken away… but she'd done it all herself? She wasn't sure she could take that all in. Maybe she _had_ been possessed this entire time, and her team just hadn't noticed it.

Plus, they seemed to still be hiding something from her. She just couldn't tell what.

She ripped off the strange gauntlets that lined her skin tight suit – she understood the cat suit, really, but what was up with those things?- and tried to find something from her old wardrobe. It was like she'd thrown it all out. She managed to wrangle up a maroon long sleeved shirt and some black pants.

Which brought her to this point in time, googling and searching for whatever was out there on amnesia.

There was a knock on her door. She quickly glanced up from the laptop she'd been provided. "Come in," she called.

"Hey, how you feeling?" asked Agent Mack, peeking his head inside.

She gave him a half smile. "Ok. Trying to catch up on everything. News and whatnot. *"

He chuckled. "That's a good idea. Did you get to Sekovia yet?"

Skye tilted her head. "No…"

"Ah. Oh, it's nothing to worry about," he said, waving a dismissive hand. "The Avengers took care of it."

"Right…" she muttered, mentally adding that to her google checklist. "So, what brings you to my humble abode?" Humble might have been too kind of a word. There was absolutely nothing to distinguish this room from any other. In fact, given the closet's tenants, she probably wouldn't have thought this was her room at all if Simmons hadn't told her.

"The director would like to see you," he said.

"Fury? He's here?"

Mack smiled, but Skye didn't feel dumb by his amusement. She actually liked how friendly he was to her. "Not exactly. C'mon, I'll take you to him."

* * *

"Daisy," Coulson acknowledged when she walked into his office. "I'm glad to see you're ok."

Skye gulped. Alright, so AC had never exactly been the most fuzzy teddy bear type, but there had always been… a warmth to him when he saw one of his team members were ok.

This… he was relieved, but not overly. Like a director would be with one of his agents and nothing more. Perhaps Skye shouldn't have assumed there should be more, but she had always hoped.

Maybe she hadn't been in Hydra's clutches long enough for him to have been notified before they found her, and maybe the amnesia thing was worrying him too much to be overly relieved anyhow.

Or maybe something completely unrelated to her was wearing him down.

He must have noticed her unresponsiveness, because he continued quickly. "I'm sorry, do you prefer Skye, at the moment? Honestly, it took me a while to get used to the Daisy thing in the first place."

Skye shrugged, smiling a bit as she saw her Coulson emerge. "Whatever decides to pop out of your mouth is fine by me. It was my own decision to change my name, after all. Or so they tell me…"

"So you remember nothing? Not anything from the past two years?"

Skye flinched backwards in surprise. So she didn't think this metamorphosis would have happened overnight, but… _years_?

"No. I remember our team. Actually, I feel a lot better and stronger since the last thing I remember."

Coulson nodded. "You were recovering."

"Yeah. Did we ever catch the clairvoyant?"

Coulson opened his mouth, but an answer did not come out. It kind of looked like one might have been close to waltzing out, but perhaps the answer was too out of left field to even attempt.

Which was frustrating, because Skye felt like it could have been a 'yes' or 'no' sort of thing.

He walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, showing the most affection she'd seen since she'd walked into his office. "I think we may have to have a debrief for you. A lot's happened… maybe I can try to organize the information so it won't be so… confusing."

 _Overwhelming_ , Skye autocorrected in her head. Could things have really been that bad? She wished Ward weren't wherever he was, she was sure he'd set her straight. He was almost frustratingly blunt with the truth.

"Sounds like a plan. I'm gonna… get cleaned up, then," said Skye, beginning to walk towards the door. "And… director?" she added, the word tasting funny on her tongue. He turned to her. "What's up with the one-sided glove? Futuristic fashion statement…?"

Coulson chuckled once, so it came out as a breath of laughter. "I'll make sure to include that in on the debrief.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I'm taking a break from Breaking the Wolf to get this mini-story up. It will be multi-chapter, but only a few. Let me know what you think!


	2. She Is My Sin

Skye took a shower.

She felt gross and unkempt considering she had been kidnapped, or captured… well, she didn't know exactly as she didn't remember a lick of it, which made her feel extra dirty with the conscious thought that they could have dropped her in a vat of dirty socks and underwear before SHIELD found her.

Admittedly unlikely, but she wanted to be clean, damn it!

Skye realized that, if what _her_ recent memory told her served, she hadn't taken a shower on her own in a couple weeks - Simmons was a great helper... but awkward sponge baths could only go so far.

She relished in the hot water and the steam that fluffed up her skin. Her fingers brushed lightly over the faded scars of her bullet wounds, which had been fresh and painful to the touch just a day ago.

Or two years ago, but… Skye still wasn't sure if she could accept that.

SHIELD had fallen, which was admittedly a lot to take in, but could it change her as a person? Could May's robot training really do more to her than what Ward had been drilling into her head?

Not to mention the never answered question, where the hell _was_ Ward?

She felt herself abruptly nervous given his line of work, but May had said he was alive.

Her mind must have just been warped from this whole memory thing, even if she was nervous. She could have sworn she felt herself tremble on unsteady ground, as the water before her eyes moved in strange patterns.

Skye chocked it up to worry, not willing to admit hallucinatory side effects just yet.

* * *

"So, we're back at square one with Daisy's abilities… you guys do remember that was quite the disaster, right?"

"That was before we had ever even heard the word inhuman, Hunter," said Coulson. "We're much better equipped to handle her now. Plus we have Lincoln…"

"There are three newbies at the Cocoon from that last pick up just a couple weeks ago," came Bobbi's voice. "Daisy's their main lifeline."

"Again, we have Lincoln."

"He's met them, but he hasn't been involved enough to make a bond," said Bobbi. "Daisy's been on point with this, and I think if we send in Campbell it could seriously stunt our chances with helping them."

"We just need a little time," Coulson insisted. "If we can cure this freak case of amnesia, we won't need to traumatize her with all she's been through at once."

"So we're not telling her then?" asked Hunter.

"Hey," May's voice cut through. "We have company."

Every head in the room turned her way, and Skye took that as her cue to come out from the corner. She knew she should have just hacked the security feed to eavesdrop…

She painted a smile on her face that was far too large. "Heeeey."

"You could have come over, Skye," said Jemma warmly. Tired, perhaps, but her sentiment rang through as genuine.

She crossed her arms. "Well, I wouldn't want to interrupt the conversational debate about my future."

"We're just trying to decide what's best for you," said Bobbi.

 _But I don't even know you,_ Skye wanted to sneer. She didn't do that though, as Skye knew she couldn't get the upper hand with such childish remarks.

"What's _best_? Telling me what I should already _know_ is what's best. What are you trying to keep from me?"

Campbell stepped forward, outreaching his hand. Skye scowled a bit. He recoiled, possibly from attempting to make this hand holding time. Instead, he flipped his hand over in front of himself and lit it with sparks.

"Remember this?"

"Kind of hard to forget…" she muttered.

"We call ourselves inhumans."

She nodded. "You mentioned."

"No, Dai- Skye. 'We' as in me _and_ you. You're an inhuman, too."

He stared at her, clearly waiting to gauge a response. She stared right back. In fact, she stared at everyone else in the room to try and figure out what her proper response should be.

"Are you… kidding? I'm an alien?"

Lincoln made a tiny, amused snort. "Your genes are at least."

"So the whole 0-8-4 thing… this is what it is?" she asked, turning to Coulson. He affirmed it with a hesitant nod. Not surprising, considering Campbell seemed to let the cat out of the bag when they had been debating on whether to share the information with her at all. "Well… do _I_ have powers?"

"Yep, you shake things," Hunter said without reserve. "Like, vibrations and earthquakes and such. Quite powerful, really."

 _Tremors_ , Skye thought, recalling what Agent Mack had called her.

Cute.

"Wow," she said, taking a deep breath.

Coulson moved forward. "We know it's a lot to take in, and we don't expect you to-"

"Are you kidding me?" she asked loudly, clearly stunning the group of agents. "This… is so _cool!"_

She beamed at them in excitement. Though she would have assumed this was a good reaction, their reactions had Skye second guessing herself.

Because blank stares bore into her from every angle.

* * *

"She got away?"

"I began the memory drain-"

"And she still got _away_!" The boss turned in upset, suddenly punching at one of Malick's priceless stone busts he liked to keep around. It shattered.

"Now, now," Gideon himself stepped forward. "We had her."

"Which is what makes it more pathetic," spat the undead man. "You shouldn't have attempted the wipe first thing, you should have shot her with an elephant tranquilizer."

Malick had the gall to laugh. "I think you may be overestimating this girl. Is there something that makes her so special?"

Ward, or the thing that used to be him, glared at Malick. Jason wasn't new to Hydra - he'd been around since before the SHIELD reveal, even if he had just been in training - but he'd never met a man as scary as Ward. Not-Ward.

Which, simply put, was because he wasn't a man.

Malick feared him as well, he knew. He tried to hide it in order to keep the upper hand with this new being, but fear cloistered in his throat and manifested somewhat with every word he spoke.

Jason would have been keen to stay in the background. Remain one of the field agents that never had to speak to upper levels in this ride to Hydra's infamy. But after he went through the required alien ritual of Terrigenesis, he acquired a gift that was too powerful to pass up, and soon found himself as Ward's right hand man.

Not-Ward.

Perhaps he was having such a difficult time with it because he had all of Ward's mannerisms. Sure, he looked somewhat like a walker from that one show, but he spoke more or less the same. Had Ward's anger… if not with a little more follow-through. (Which was really saying something, considering Ward 1.0 already had generous follow through).

Most unnervingly was that he brought up events of Ward's past, things he would never have been able to know if he weren't wired directly to his host's mind.

"She has _seismic controlling_ abilities," Ward stressed. "Of course she is special. I would have been happy with the spark plug or melting man too, but I have been disappointed on every count."

Malick grinned. "No, there's more to this. You want that girl. Not just for her abilities." He tilted his head. "I think your connection to Grant Ward is guiding this action somewhat."

Ward heaved, once or twice. Jason feared he was going to rip off Gideon's head after the accusation.

Instead he smiled, slowly, which might have been the more terrifying thing to witness.

"It's true, I do seem to yearn for this woman. For her understanding," said not-Ward. "I think... it will be satisfying when we take her memories so she can understand Hydra's cause. Her power, working beneath me… will just be even more icing on the cake."

Malick showed his toothy sneer, once again pleased with how he was able to control the creature he himself was meant to be following. "Of course."

Ward brought a hand up to his chin, squinting at a non-existent light.

"You say you started to deteriorate her memories before her team caught up to you…"

Jason nervously nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Do you know how much you got?"

"Maybe… a little over two years, sir."

"Which would put her mind right before the collapse of SHIELD."

"Your gears seem to be turning there," Gideon commented.

"They are, I believe," he mused. His cheeks upturned, making a pleased expression. That was good. That was _safe_. "You know, I like this host. His memories give me just a little… a little _push_." He began pacing, looking up as though accessing memories. "His thoughts were strange, as well. I believe he manipulated others even when he wasn't sure he'd been doing it. But the ideas he had… those were no mistake. They were well thought out."

"What do you need?" asked Malick conspiratorially. He wanted to know what was going on.

Ward's hand dove into his pocket, fishing out a phone.

He waved it at them. "With Grant Ward's memories and that girl lacking hers, _this_ is all I should need to bring down the head of SHIELD, leaving nothing more than ruins."

* * *

"You sure you're up for this?"

"Easy peasy, Campbell. You saw me try these things out," she said, gesturing to her fists as she gave them another once over. Skye couldn't believe she had the ability to make pulses, or freaking shake things with her _mind_! She felt like a natural, but she'd done it before. Must have been like riding a bike. Muscle memory. "We're like superheroes!"

"Sure, it's cool. But it's a lot of power with a lot of responsibility," he said as they rounded another hallway in the Cocoon – which, if you were wondering, was another secret SHIELD base.

"And a lot of crap I'm not prepared to deal with?"

"I never said you couldn't deal with-"

"Never mind," Skye said, waving him off as she smiled at her own memory. "But Campbell, why is everyone so doom and gloom? I mean… you guys were thinking of not telling me about my abilities, but I'm pretty sure I'd be more freaked out if I accidentally vibrated out my teeth while brushing them or something."

He grinned. "That's oddly specific."

"It was honestly the first thing that came to mind when I thought of these powers going downhill…" she mused.

"Makes sense. You can cause natural disasters that could bring down cities, but vibrating teeth is a decent concern."

"I can cause natural disasters?" she asked.

"Your gift is _powerful_. Don't underestimate it."

"Chill, guy. We're just going to go talk to these people, right?"

"Mainly, but they've only recently turned. Most are terrified at this stage."

Skye didn't really get why. Ok, so when Hannah thought she had uncontrollable telekinetic powers it didn't bode so well for her… but these people had SHIELD, they were safe.

Weren't they?

"They haven't hurt anyone, right?" Skye asked.

"We snagged them before they had the chance. But they could have."

Lincoln scanned a key card and they walked into a room with what appeared to be a two-way mirror. Skye was about to check out the people through the glass, when a robotic, droning voice pierced the air.

"Unregistered technology detected. Unregistered technology will be disabled."

"What the heck was- ow!" Skye felt a shock in her pocket. "Lincoln, was that you?"

"No, it wasn't, but… I might have forgotten to tell you to check in your phone."

Skye took the electronic out of her pocket. It was, in Laymen's terms, fried.

"That thing was just supposed to disable technology, but it's been bugging lately. It _may_ have broken your phone."

"Gee, you think?" Skye exclaimed, holding up the charred remains. "Why in the hell do you have that thing installed?"

"We had an incident a few weeks ago."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Not really…" he mumbled, but Skye stared him down. He sighed. "It did have to do with a guy with technopathy, an electric toothbrush, and a girl with the power to make things bigger. Not to mention an anger issue."

Skye was slightly overwhelmed by this information, and wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know anymore. Maybe she'd ask for the details later. "Hm. Alrighty, then. Well, let's go do our lifting morale job!"

Skye chucked open the doors of the training facility. There were two girls inside and one guy. The guy looked about fifty and pretty chubby. The girls were younger-probably teens, pretty, and… completely identical.

"Oh, you're twins?"

The brunettes looked at one another, puzzled. One chuckled. "Of course, Daisy. We haven't changed since you last saw us."

"Even if you did meet us after the biggest change of our lives," said the other.

Campbell grabbed Skye's arm to pull her sideways. "You were going to go over the personnel files, remember? You're supposed to _know_ them?" he whispered harshly.

Skye felt her cheeks light fire. "I got excited?" she said sheepishly, wanting to kick herself for being stupid.

He sighed. "It's ok. Just… That's Benny, and those two are Tilly and Talia. Don't worry, you had a hard time telling them apart anyway."

"Got it," Skye affirmed, and then walked over to the group. "How's it going?"

"Hm, alright," said one girl, her hand straining in the air next to a cup full of clear liquid. "I think I'm getting to a point where I can boil water without burning my hand… and Tilly- "

"And my ice isn't spreading without my say-so as often!" chirped the other, who was most likely Tilly. She threw her hand out, freezing a small portion of the wall. Curving her fingers, she kept it contained to a small circle.

 _Opposites,_ thought Skye. Sweet.

She noted that when Tilly used her power, her eyes turned a chilling blue along with her fingertips. Skye realized Terrigenisis must have been able to cause physical changes as well.

Skye nodded, trying to appear satisfied. In honesty, she was pretty impressed, so she was forced to hold back a fraction of her excitement. "That sounds great! You two should be ready to go in no time, I'd think. Jerry?"

"Benny," hissed Lincoln.

"Benny! How about you?"

He harrumphed. Sort of. It might have just been a growl but it gave Skye the vibe of a 'harrumph.'

"There's not really a point, is there? You're just going to relocate us to new lives. I'll never see my sweet Mindy again… I don't know why I bother trying! Just put me in the middle of Iceland where I won't be a bother."

Skye blinked, pondering the change of tone from the other inhumans to this one. "Benny, just because you can't go home doesn't mean you have to live in isolation," she told him, trying for a tender voice.

"I might as well! Without my wife… what's the point of seeing anyone?" He'd stood up, hands turned to fists and suddenly shaking.

"Benny…" Lincoln warned, hands out. "Don't get upset."

"Yeah, please," said Skye. "I'm sure there's a way we can figure this out… you should be able to see your wife, after all."

"Daisy-" Lincoln warned, but Benny's voice quickly overtook his.

"You mean it, Daisy?" Benny's yearning eyes lit up in a way that made Skye want to cry. "You mean I could see Mindy?"

"I'm sure, I mean, there has to be a way…"

Her fellow agent stomped in front of her. "Skye _. Stop talking."_

"We can't just keep these people from their family, Campbell. It's inhuman!" She paused. "The… the bad type of inhuman."

"We can talk about this outside."

"What, you don't think my wife can keep a secret, Lincoln?" bellowed Benny. "We'd be fine on our own! I'd never hurt her."

"You don't even know your own strength, Benny."

"Maybe not, but he could learn," Skye protested. "Once he has it under control like me-"

"You need to shut the hell up-" growled Lincoln.

"DON'T YOU SPEAK TO DAISY LIKE THAT!" Benny bellowed. _Really_ bellowed. Skye took back what she'd thought about him bellowing before, _this_ was a bellow.

Because it literally knocked Lincoln flying through the air, eventually hitting the wall.

"Campbell!" Skye shouted in concern as he hit the ground. The twins had curled up into the corner, clearly fearing the man's rage. She could see why. He was coming at Skye with a fire in his eyes.

"DAISY, I CAN HANDLE IT," the man shouted desperately.

Well, it didn't sound like he was trying to shout anymore, but the noise still left his throat impossibly loud and blowing a large gust at her. She guessed the only reason her feet were merely sliding instead of flying towards the wall was because he wasn't trying to put extra umph into it.

"PLEASE LET ME SEE MY WIFE."

Skye put her hands forward as though trying to subdue a spooked horse. "Benny, even if it's a possibility I need to talk to people! You need more time! You hurt Agent Campbell, let me go check on -"

"LINCOLN WILL BE OK, DAISY," the man continued, stepping in front of her when she tried to go see Campbell. "PLEASE LET ME SEE MY WIFE!"

Skye took a look around. The wind was picking up and carrying inside the tiny room. If he didn't stop now, they have an indoor cyclone to deal with.

"Please Benny, just take it down a notch."

"DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?" he asked desperately, taking his head in his hands. Skye saw the pain and frustration mirrored in his expression, his rage, in his tears. "I _CAAAAAAN'T_!"

With that he let loose, roaring at her the last word.

Skye reacted quickly, her arms shooting out to meet the burst of wind with her own power. The forces collided with incredible power to stop one another. She pushed, and kept pushing, until he ran out of air to scream. Even then she pushed, keeping him on the ground until Lincoln could nod to the cameras for an automatic sedation. A small dart shot at him from the ceiling.

Skye heaved harshly as she dropped her hands, unwilling to accept what she had just done to that poor man.

Campbell finally picked himself up completely. "Tilly, Talia, go to your bunks please. Training's over for today."

They nodded wordlessly, hurrying away. When they were gone, Campbell turned to her furiously.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

Skye was near doubled over from the strain she was recovering from, but picked herself up quickly to defend herself from the blame in his voice.

"That wasn't fair. To be ripped away from your family…"

"We told you they couldn't go back!"

"Was it wrong for him to have hope?" Skye asked, thinking of all those days at the orphanage when all she'd wanted was for her birth parents to show up, for a foster family to finally claim her as their own.

Lincoln's mouth gaped in anger. "Mindy Winters is _dead,_ Skye."

Skye recoiled, her head pounding as though he'd smashed a hammer to her temple.

"You just gave a widower hope that he'd see his wife again," Lincoln spat at her, every word increasing the lump in her throat and the guilt that was welling. "That he'd be able to spend the rest of his _life_ with his dead wife."

"He didn't know?" she asked quietly.

"We haven't told him! She died of an aneurism eight days after we brought him in. Until we know he won't start a hurricane with the news, we were keeping it classified."

Skye attempted to stop tears from escaping. "I'm sorry," she told him. "I didn't know."

He scoffed. "Right, you didn't know. You didn't prep for going in there, you didn't know what you were doing at all! You shouldn't have accepted this mission if you weren't going to take it seriously."

"I was taking it seriously. I just… I made a mistake, ok!"

"If that was you taking something seriously, then I don't know you at all."

"Because I'm not this Daisy person, right? I'm not SHIELD agent robot enough for you, Agent Campbell?"

He stared, momentarily, just before a scoff and the huff of a chuckle at the same time. It was incredibly mirthless. "Yeah. I really don't know you at all."

He turned deliberately harshly and headed away.

Skye bit her lip in upset, knowing she had been in the wrong. So wrong. That had been her fault, and now someone was going to go through worse grief and had been put under unnecessary sedation because she couldn't keep her big mouth shut.

Maybe this _was_ too much for her to handle at once.

She was just wiping a tear from her eye when the phone in her pocket rang. (She refused to call it _her_ phone because- surprise!- that was different too.)

"Skye? Is that you?"

It certainly wasn't a voice she had been expecting to hear, but hell if she wasn't relieved to be listening to it.

"Ward?"

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Let me know how I'm doing!


	3. Storytime

"I don't know how you people could _stand_ her," said Lincoln.

"Watch it, Lincoln," Coulson ordered. "I realize you're upset, but I asked you for a debrief to assess Daisy's condition. Not insult her when she's not around to defend herself."

Lincoln pointed at the door roughly, as though the girl were standing on the other side of it. "That is _not_ Daisy."

"You're right, it's Skye," Coulson agreed. "You met Skye after she'd trained, after she'd gone through more hardships than even her childhood had dealt her. She's trying to catch up with some of those things now, and maybe she's not handling it as well as she should. But I will not tolerate putting her down behind her back."

Lincoln inhaled in surprise, wisely deciding not to bite back. He sat down on the couch. "Sorry, sir. It's just… so unlike her."

"It's her before she knew you. Maybe take it as a good thing that you've had such a positive influence on her life," Coulson said. He added a slightly wry smile, giving Lincoln inclination it wasn't entirely the truth. Phil knew there were other instances that had shaped her character than just Lincoln.

"Positivity isn't the problem." He paused. "Actually, it is. She's so positive she's frivolous."

"Skye definitely had a bigger sense of humor before Hydra knocked us all down a peg, but she was serious when it mattered. This situation is probably catching her a little off guard. What you two just went through might have been a wake up call for her senses." Coulson paused. "You might find 'Skye' when she's ashamed of something she's done wrong more serious than 'Daisy' on most missions."

Lincoln nodded. And sighed. "It's just… she calls me Campbell."

Coulson chuckled. "You realize you can tell her you prefer your first name?"

"It's more the principle of it. She doesn't even realize that… that we're close."

Coulson was starting to busy himself with paperwork, multi-tasking. "She's always called Fitz by his last name, May too. But that was probably more for a personal safety issue if she ever tried Melinda… she certainly did attempt Phil with me, though." Coulson looked up to Lincoln to find the man staring at him with an odd expression. "And you meant the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing, so my comparisons don't really mean anything to you."

Lincoln shrug/nodded in agreement.

"Right. Well, considering this is turning into dating problems between my employees conversation, we might want to wrap it up."

"Yeah… especially when it's your boss's daughter," Lincoln said wryly, but Phil rather appreciated the sentiment.

"Probably should find Fitz or Simmons," suggested Coulson.

Moments later, footsteps were heard coming up to the office. Jemma appeared in the doorway.

"Speak of the devil," admonished Coulson. "Agent Simmons, is something wrong?" he asked, reading her expression.

"It's Daisy sir, she's vanished!"

"She's not on the base?" he asked.

"She never came back from the Cocoon."

Coulson turned to Lincoln. "You two didn't drive back together?"

Lincoln gulped nervously. "She didn't want to see me after our… disagreement. Said she'd take a different van."

"Damn it," Coulson muttered, picking up his phone.

"She's probably just needing some alone time with all of this," Lincoln suggested.

"That's quite possible," agreed Jemma. "Her memory's damaged, but she's still an adult with a mind that works perfectly well on her own."

Coulson glanced at Simmons and Lincoln, his serious face leaving no room for optimism.

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of."

* * *

Ward asked Skye to meet him at Ruthie's Skillet in LA. So for being in New York City, it would have been a little bit of a stretch to say yes.

He had been desperate on the phone, begging for her to see him and to not listen to what SHIELD had said about him. She quickly informed him about her memory loss and that SHIELD actually refused to disclose any information on him.

That got him rather upset, and his anger seemed to resonate at SHIELD. He kept insisting for her to hear him out. That's when she explained that she was nowhere near Los Angeles and that her only form of transportation was a van, so it couldn't be anytime soon.

Ward paid no mind though, instead agreeing to meet in NYC. In rather record time, so he must have had access to a sort of jet. Or something.

So she disabled the GPS tracker on the van, took over an hour to find a parking place and finally made it inside Grand Central Station.

"Skye," he breathed her name in relief when he caught sight of her. Of course, ninja Ward was able to spot her before she him, but to her credit… it would have been fairly difficult to see him. His getup was pretty odd... but maybe she should have noticed the smell because his odor was decided pretty _horrible_. "Almost didn't recognize you with that hair."

"Ward, it's really you! And you're one to talk about appearances. _What_ are you wearing?" she asked, pointing to the hoodie near completely covering his face. She glanced around, admittedly in a shady sort of motion. "You hiding from the cops? Cause New York's biggest train station is probably not the best place to do it."

"No, not from the cops," he told her. "C'mon Skye, let's sit down and talk."

He made a gesture over to a seat so Skye followed suit.

Wait…

"Skye?" she asked.

"Yes," Ward said questionably. "That's… that is your name."

"It is my name!" Skye confirmed. "You didn't call me Daisy."

"Daisy?" he scoffed. "Why would I call you _that_?"

"I guess I changed my name, and thanks to this amnesia shtick I don't remember doing it." She shrugged.

"That… doesn't really sound like you."

"Changing my name? You do know how I got the name _Skye_ , right?"

He chuckled. "Ok, _that_ part is definitely you. I was talking about the naming yourself after a _flower_?" He cocked a brow.

Skye gave an awkward chuckle. "I guess it's my birth name."

He scoffed once again. "Well, your parents had no foresight as to how you were going to turn out," he said, giving her an almost shy smile, taking her hand. She shuddered, noting him to be chilly. "The sky is limitless, while daisies are delicate enough to fall apart after one touch. Which sounds more like you?"

Skye took in the impact of his words and couldn't contain her blush. He had never spoken to her like that in any capacity.

Heck, his best line last week had been "you look better than when you were dying."

But that was last week two years ago, and Grant Ward had clearly upped his smooth talk game.

"Right… so now that that's taken care of…" She cleared her throat, and prepared to lower her voice. "Can you please tell me what the hell is going on?"

Grant sighed. "So SHIELD hasn't told you _anything_ about me?"

Skye shook her head. "They just said you weren't around."

"Huh, figures," he sneered.

"So… what's the truth?"

He huffed air through his nose, head still pointed down. She hadn't gotten a good look at him under the hood.

" _This_ is the truth."

Until now.

He hooked his hands over the fabric atop his head and flipped it backwards, his eyes finally finding her own. She gasped, because they were not the warm brown she had become accustomed to. They were dark and endless and scary.

It wasn't just a look in his eyes. It wasn't just a feeling that coursed through Skye when she laid her own on him. These observances were completely physical.

He was dark, bruised… blue and damaged. The skin that wasn't was blanched pale, a sickly hue if she'd ever seen one. It seemed to almost be moving in slight.

Skye lifted her hand up, just to touch him. She felt near compelled with intrigue, but she dropped her hand atop his. Ok, he was definitely running on a low temperature.

"What happened?" she whispered in horror.

"SHIELD," he rasped.

"What?" Skye squealed. "They wouldn't do this to you…"

"They wouldn't have done it to the old Grant Ward, the agent. But the guy who went through Terrigenesis and came out uncontrolled? They would."

"Terrigenesis? But they told me that's how Inhumans…" Skye's eyes got large.

"That's right, I'm just like you," he said. "Inhuman."

Skye scowled indignantly. "What the hell did they do to you? Why?"

"When I came out of that cocoon, I was messed up. I wasn't thinking right. I don't think they meant to, exactly. They were scared. And I _was_ dangerous Skye, I must stress that-"

"What did they do?" she asked sternly.

"They killed me," he said simply, shrug and all.

" _What?"_

"My body, at least. Which is when I figured out what the mist did for me: I keep living even if my body no longer can."

"But…. what? That doesn't make sense! That's not how super powers are supposed to work; they're supposed to _stop_ you from dying!"

"That's how it worked for me. Then SHIELD dumped me, because I was 'not natural'." He gave a short mirthless laugh. "Simmons couldn't get passed the fear enough to even let her curiosity take over for an exam! I realized I wasn't safe and took off. I've been living in the shadows ever since."

Skye's mouth hung open, unsure of how to respond. How could she make up for the hardships her team had put him through? They were collecting and rehabilitating inhumans now, for god's sake!

"Ward, I am so sorry."

"No, I'm sorry. I didn't exactly call you for a catch up. The truth is that I need to ask you for a favor."

"Name it!" Skye said eagerly. Desperately, even.

"There's something wrong with me. My body wants to keep going but it can't, probably because it's dead." Skye winced. "And I don't know what to do."

"You need SHIELD resources," Skye said as she realized.

"I need SHIELD resources."

This was disgusting. Ward had needed help, needed help now, but he didn't have it because his own team wouldn't give it to him, though they were helping to train and relocate strangers? It didn't make sense! Not for Coulson.

But SHIELD was known for their secrets and Fury was no fool in hiding them. Maybe Coulson had taken on more of the director role than Skye had originally realized.

"Think you can keep on my tail with your car?" asked Skye. "Because I'm pretty sure I know exactly where to go."

* * *

"She's not at her van in storage," affirmed Bobbi over comms.

Coulson sighed. "Alright, that was a long shot anyway. Thank you Agent Morse."

He didn't think she'd have gone there. If Skye's memory truly picked up after she'd been shot, she held little to no interest of going back to her van, the last remnants of her old life, even then.

"Sir," Fitz said loudly, walking into the office. "I've found her."

"You did?" Coulson asked. "Is she ok?"

"She's fine. Sat cams picked up her license plate 'bout ten minutes ago. She seemed to have just been hanging about New York City,"

That was a major relief, and actually made sense. "What's she up to now?"

"Now? She's headed back to the Cocoon, sir."

"The Cocoon? Why is she going there?" Coulson asked. "Can you bring up the feed?"

"Yeah! One moment…"

Fitz began typing and mere seconds later the SHIELD van came onto the screen in his office.

"Definitely going back to the Cocoon, she's nearly there." Coulson squinted. "Wait, is that…"

"Has she got a tail on her?"

"I think she does."

"She's about to lead them right into the base," Fitz exclaimed. "Even at that point in her life Skye would know surveillance protocol when going somewhere like that… what's she thinking?"

"Unless it's intentional."

Fitz pondered blindly for a moment. "Who would she be leading to a _secret_ base?"

The van and car stopped just outside the entrance to the cocoon, one person emerging from the driver's side of each.

Phil's eyes bulged near out of his head. Blind anger flashed through him like a speeding bullet and he hit some paraphernalia right off his desk.

Coulson was seething. "The only person our team trusted above all others: one of our own."

" _No,"_ Fitz admonished in disbelief as he saw Grant Ward walking about the screen. "But… I thought you killed him back on that planet!"

"That makes two of us." Coulson couldn't believe this. Why wouldn't he just _die_? "There's no way he could have survived!"

"Oh no…" said Fitz.

"What?"

"Will was dead back on that planet. Before we even got there. He was dead."

"Right…"

"Well, then… that's not really Ward at all, is it?"

It took Coulson a moment to wrap his head around the idea, but it was most likely the truth. Because if he'd learned at least one thing from a life at SHIELD, it was this: the most far-fetched ideas were normally the right ones.

"Call in _everyone_ and tell them to get to the Cocoon. _Now."_

* * *

Skye walked in like she owned the place. By the sounds of herself in two years, (or Daisy, as she liked to think of that other version of her so-called self) she was a leader. Especially when it came to inhumans, so Skye thought it might be the way to go.

She was stopped about two feet after walking into the super secret door. (The _ground_ had opened up to let them inside. Could you get much more spy-esque?)

"Johnson, I need to see your identification."

She scowled. "You _just_ called me Johnson, pretty sure you know who I am," she mentioned, realizing she most likely was friendly with this guy if he knew her name. "C'mon Agent… Sanders, is this necessary?" She hoped the reading of his lanyard had been inconspicuous.

"I take it you don't have your ID, miss?"

Skye sensed Ward reach for his gun, mentally noting that he was definitely more trigger happy than usual. Hopefully his grudge against SHIELD didn't leave him cloudy minded.

"No, I do," she said, quickly grabbing the item from her pocket. "I just think it's unnecessary."

He took her lanyard, studying it intently. After a few moments, the bearded man's face lit up as he began to laugh. "C'mon Daisy, this is the Cocoon. Cesspool of gifteds here… you could have been a shapeshifter for all I know!"

"Heh, ain't that the truth?" she said.

He chuckled again. "Sure is. Now, who is this you have with you?"

Skye froze internally, but didn't let an inch of emotion show on her face. If they had been that scared of Ward, she doubted they'd be so kind as to let him walk into their base. But maybe this hoodie-wearing, cologne-soaked person (hey, it was better than corpse smell) would raise some eyeballs as well?

"This is Allen Finch. He's a promising talent from MIT. I've had my eye on him for a while since he's been searching all the gifteds' news coverage, trying to figure out where they're ending up… he's a nosey one, but it did lead me right to him."

Sanders scrutinized Ward for a moment, but eventually shrugged, shaking the man's hand so hard Skye honest to god thought that it was about to snap off. He was dead, after all.

"I hope this isn't just a job interview, and that he's already had his background checked… you didn't initiate the black bag protocol, I noticed."

"That's… _exactly_ true. Background completely checked. Finch will be working here in the foreseeable future, so I thought I'd give him a tour around."

"In that case, welcome to the Cocoon kid. Sure you'll get your fill of gifteds."

"Thank you," Ward muttered in a small, near mangled voice.

"You're a quiet one, huh?"

Skye shrugged. "Eh, you can get him talking."

The man smiled and walked away, leaving Skye and Ward to waltz right into the depths of the SHIELD base.

"So, I was thinking you could talk to a couple of the other inhumans… see our training facility. I may be able to find something out from the computers in the lab if I can decipher all the science mumbo-jumbo and—what?"

Ward was staring at her with a cocked brow. "Nice name you came up with."

Skye rolled her eyes. _That's_ what he was fixating on? "I don't know… I just thought of my favorite Firefly actor and… well, that author character from Elf popped into my head for god knows what reason-"

"Firefly… that show you were always telling me about?"

"I'm guessing you still haven't watched it?" she asked, Ward shaking his head immediately. Skye sighed. "Such a waste of two years."

Ward chuckled, taking a few steps forward and surveying the white walls of the laboratory-themed base. "So, this where the home team hangs out?" he asked.

"Guess not, actually," she said. "This is for inhumans to go through training and whatever else SHIELD does to get them back to the world. Like… alien rehab, I guess."

"Makes sense," mused Ward. "You said something about meeting more inhumans?" He grinned, the smile taking up much of his face. "I'd love to see them."

"I don't think that would be such a good idea."

Skye's face blanched at the booming, serious voice. She turned to see Coulson.

Not to mention about eight other field agents, including the two Inhumans that made up her "team." Plus Fitz and Simmons, even.

Ward grinned at the sight of him, actively raising his hands in surrender. "You got here quicker than I would have guessed you would, Phil. Nice job."

"Seeing someone whose chest cavity you crushed kind of raises a couple red flags."

Skye flinched. _Crushed?_

"Coulson, he needs help! I know you think he's dangerous, but maybe with a little help-"

"Daisy, I'm sorry, but you don't know what you're talking about!" Coulson exclaimed. "It's not your fault, if anyone's it's mine, but you can't have a say in this."

Skye frowned. "My _name_ is Skye."

Hunter sighed. "Poor guy can't catch a break with this name gimmick…"

Ward faced her, keeping the others in his sight still. "Unfortunately, _Skye_ , he's right. You don't know what you're talking about at all," he said, his voice off as it began to hold a taunting tone. "Because I've been lying to you."

"Skye, get over here-" Coulson ordered, but her feet refused to move.

"Ward?" she squeaked, not understanding.

"No, in fact. But that guy actually takes the cake on lying," he said lazily. "He was _Hydra_. Your team didn't turn their backs on them, he was a spy the entire time."

Skye's heart fell into her stomach. The walls shook, and she realized what they had warned her about her powers and her emotions being connected was taking place. After everything we've been through? she thought. She refused to believe it. "Why are you speaking like you're not him? C'mon, Ward…"

"Skye please," Campbell implored as his hand stretched forward. "Just come over here."

"Why _don't_ you join your friends?" Ward sneered.

Before Skye could say 'hacker's rule' or another equally true statement, she found her upper arm being grabbed and her body flung towards the agents. She stumbled as she reached them, but Campbell gathered her to steady her.

With Skye out of harm's way the agents were galvanized. They began shooting at Ward immediately. He was being filled with holes, gushing a strange, thick blood.

And he laughed.

Coulson saw how fruitless the action was serving and ran to a wall panel. This being a base completely overrun with powered people, it had a few precautions the Playground didn't have. (So Skye had been told). Such as, knockout gas being releasable and directable from every hallway-with the proper authentication, of course.

Coulson pressed the button and Ward was suddenly showered in the mist. He was not visible to them for long moments as the fog was too dense, clearly putting everyone on red alert. They raised their guns, however pointless, in anticipation of when the smoke would clear.

Even before the haze dissipated in entirety, Skye knew it hadn't done much good. She could still hear him laughing.

"Nice try," he said. "You just can't get rid of Ward no matter how bad you want it, huh Phil?"

Campbell was holding tight to Skye's hand in protection. He had been the entire time she realized, but she hadn't noticed until she felt the absence of such when he bravely stepped forward to shoot large electric beams at Ward.

That's when Skye remembered that she could help too.

She bounded forward and shot out her waves, knocking Ward back into the wall, farther than even Lincoln's power had moved him.

The last Inhuman present, Joey, came jogging forward as well. "Hold him steady Daisy!"

For once she didn't mind the misnomer, and pressed harder at the man who flailed against the wall.

Joey's face squished together in deep concentration, his hand shaking with how hard he had to force his abilities. Finally, the metal cabinet in which his fist had been directed at crumpled, and he flung it onto Ward, melding him to the wall.

Skye and Campbell dropped their arms, heaving.

"Nice job, guys," Mack said. Skye tried to give a light smile, but she was still feeling the weight of recent revelations.

Also… Ward was still laughing, which couldn't mean anything fantastic.

"I would clap if my hands were free, honestly," he commented.

"Any way you can get a slab of that metal over his mouth?" asked May.

"Oh, come on, lover," he chastised. Skye could have sworn she saw fire light behind May's eyes. "Don't you want to hear how I've beaten you?"

"You're stuck to the wall with molten metal," Bobbi said. "I'd say we have you in a pretty tight spot."

"Think again," he said darkly.

Right on cue, gas started pouring out from the ceiling, and it wasn't just over Ward this time. It was the entire hallway.

"What's going on?" shouted Hunter.

Bobbi rushed to the wall panel. "It's not- it's not letting me do anything!" she sputtered, before erupting in a coughing fit. Everyone was. The gas wasn't too painful, but Skye couldn't breathe!

She collapsed onto all fours and finally to her stomach. Lincoln fell similarly onto his back in her eye line.

By then she no longer heard the hissing of new gas being poured through the roof as the smoke cleared. Moments passed with little noise, and Skye knew her entire team had been incapacitated.

She could barely keep her eyes open, but she saw multiple pairs of blurred boots stomp into her vision. More people had gotten into the facility. As her eyes fluttered closed she heard the screech of metal, followed by a relieved breath from Ward.

Her eyes didn't need to be open to know that the boots coming close to her now were not one of the newcomers.

Skye would have trembled, her own body or this building, if she'd had the power as Ward came closer to her. Because this wasn't Ward. Hell, she didn't even know who her own Ward was! Whether this strange possessed version or Hydra him she didn't know what he'd do.

He stopped just in front of her, lifting his boot near her face. She felt the rush of air from the moment.

He was going to step on her, she knew. He was going to squish her skull to leave her splattered like a bug.

Except he didn't.

He nudged her over so that she was on her back, and Skye strained to open her eyes. He knelt down beside her.

"Shh," he cooed, beginning to brush back the hair from her cheek with what she could have sworn was a tender touch. "Don't worry. You'll understand soon enough, and this will all be over."

Skye didn't know exactly what that meant, but she was fairly certain she wouldn't care for his sort of understanding.

He ordered someone to take her away, and when her body left the ground her consciousness flitted away with it.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I realize it's been awhile since Daisy and Ward interacted, but he had such strong (if not delusional) feelings for her I wanted to play with the idea of those feelings influencing Hive.

Also, Agents of SHIELD is on tonight! And it's probably going to muck up this story :D There is a 90% chance Hive doesn't want to eat Inhumans in my story. If I can make it work I will but… I don't think I can.

OH ALSO to the guest who asked when breaking the wolf would be up… maybe in a few weeks? I'm not sure. And I don't know about the staticquake romance, if it goes with the story it goes.

Let me know what you think!


	4. Song of Myself

Skye came to, her short-term memory working as well as ever as she recalled what situation she was in.

A situation that could be summed up as being in deep shit.

Looking around, things hadn't gotten better since she'd been unconscious.

Her whole team was there, new ones included. They were there and captured, tied tight as Christmas ribbons. Bobbi and Hunter were on theirs knees with hands and feet bound. They'd removed Coulson's hand and restrained him in a way that would accommodate for the lack of such. May was still knocked out, and Skye wondered if this was on purpose… Ward wouldn't be known to underestimate her. Fitzsimmons were back to back in bindings and Skye realized she was as well.

"Skye, you're awake?"

She strained behind herself to see Campbell staring at her. She wasn't just tied to him but Joey as well.

"Yeah," she whispered, unable to keep herself from tugging at the rope over her hands and legs.

"Don't bother," he said. "It's too tight."

She sighed. "Figured. Can't you like… spark 'em off or something, Campbell?"

"No," he told her. "They put something on us to stop our powers." He lifted up his chin, revealing a thick bronze collar sort of thing. Skye jutted her chin down to rest on her chest and felt the same thing on her own person. "And feel free to call me by my first name, seeing as we're about to die and all…"

Skye's heart plummeted and she felt tears she fought to repress. They _were_ going to die. Ward and this Hydra organization were apparently going to shoot them all in the head and take over SHIELD, all because of her.

The only question was… why hadn't they done it yet?

"Ah kid, we aren't going to kill you."

Skye perked herself up at the sound of the voice.

Ward knelt down to be on their eye level. "Why would I bother with this fancy jewelry if I was just going to cross you off?" Ward asked, thumbing the collar on Lincoln's neck absentmindedly, until he belatedly jerked away. "Hydra doesn't kill assets. In fact, they promised me an inhuman army. Clearly I need to help them build it…"

"We're not going to help you, whatever's possessing you or this weird Nazi organization!" Skye hissed.

He smirked at her. "Oh, you will. Once my soldier takes away your memories, you'll wake up in a world where the only enemy you know is SHIELD, hunting your kind." He chuckled. "You'll be running into my arms just to find a new family, won't you?"

"You can replace our memories?" Joey asked, terrified.

"No," Ward replied. "We can erase your memories. And when you wake up with none, in this facility clearly meant for holding inhumans after having been cruelly experimented on, you'll be begging to let the people who saved you take you in."

"We've never been experimented on!" Joey protested.

"Not yet," Ward said, twirling his finger as a signal while he stood. Two soldiers moved over to them, separating the bonds that connected them and slicing the ones at their feet so they could be pushed around. "We just have to set up a little scene to make our story more believable. These SHIELD scientists seem quite willing to help play a part once I show them _my_ abilities."

"Ward, please!" Skye shouted as she thrashed in some Hydra soldier's grip. "You have to be in there. Try to fight this!"

"The Ward you knew doesn't exist, Skye," Bobbi called to her. "Just accept that this possessed version is even a more glorified jerk than the first."

"Oh look," Ward said, waltzing over to Morse. "Someone's volunteering to be the first SHIELD agent to die."

"Don't you touch a bloody hair on her head!" Hunter shouted.

Ward's hand thrust out like a viper, weaving his fingers into Bobbi's scalp and pulling her cruelly to her feet. His men trained their guns at her.

He shrugged. "Whoops."

Hunter had a minor freak out trying to loosen his way free, while Ward turned back to Skye. "I would say that I blow this Ward guy out of the water when it comes to disciplining through harsh means," he paused to send a harsh punt from his boot to Hunter's nose, "but honestly, I don't know if that would be the truth. Do you know he stuck needles through this woman's fingertips?"

He shoved Bobbi's head into the wall, leaving her to fall heavily to the floor as he moved on from her.

" _Stop,"_ Skye mouthed, to horrorstruck for words to manifest.

He breathed in deeply, over the two wounded people, as though smelling. A moment later Skye knew that's what he'd been doing. He dabbed at Bobbi's blood from the wall until it was on his fingertips and brought it to his nose, inhaling.

He began moving until he stopped in front of Fitzsimmons who, to their credit, did not flinch away at all. Their chests were puffed and shoulders back. "These were supposed to be his best friends, right? Well, he plopped them into the ocean, no foreseeable way out. It caused this one brain damage." He flicked Fitz on the nose, though Leo had been expecting much worse and had flinched away as Simmons made to bite Ward. She missed, thank god. Skye was sure she'd have been left with much worse than teeth marks from the retaliation of such.

"Slept with this one under false pretenses… which, if I recall by your laws, is some sort of sexual abuse? That's seems ridiculous, but, eh." He stepped over May.

Waltzed right up to Coulson. "And of course, let's not forget the fearless director. Ward not only betrayed this man's entire team, killed countless people that included his friends, but also his _lover._ For no reason other than spite! From streets away, nonetheless. Very impressive." He chuckled. "One of my favorite memories from this body, in fact."

Skye thought she was going to be sick. Coulson's eyes held bloodlust, and she could not blame him.

"So you might all call me the creature, a monster, but I think you just traded one for another," he said. "And look on the bright side, with Grant Ward looking so hard for closure, none of you would have made it out alive. At least this way a few of you will."

"Why are you telling us this?" Skye asked. Except, pretty much everyone there already knew all this stuff.

Besides Skye.

"Why are you telling _me_ this?" she quietly whimpered.

The incessant smile that had been hard pressed on Ward's face the entire time disappeared, leaving no trace of such as he tilted his head. Skye saw a wave of confusion, or doubt, perhaps.

But it flickered away like a candle.

He waved his hand. "Take my new soldiers away. Restrain them on an operating table or something… needs to be convincing. We'll send in Jason soon."

"Yes sir," came a chorus from the drones Ward had hired. Or Hydra had hired. How long had some thing been possessing him? "I need to finish business with these agents… my way."

Skye hopped backwards in the soldier's grip as she saw Ward advance on her friends. "No, don't!" She rammed her elbow backwards into the soldier's gut, freeing herself enough to run to Ward. He allowed her to approach, curious as to her actions more than anything. He stared at her, intrigued.

"Don't kill them please," she begged. "Whoever's in there… please do _not_ kill them!"

"Let's go," shouted the masked man who she'd gotten away from. He held her rougher and tighter now.

"Don't kill them!" she shouted one last time, just before she was ushered out of sight.

* * *

Skye was separated from Joey and Lincoln. Lincoln had become wildly upset over the fact and began bucking, but Skye was too numb to be bothered by the isolation. Ward's declarations of his sins had been enough to dull her care for herself.

No wonder they hadn't told her.

She felt herself dive deep and hide in the depths of her own self, unbothered by being told to lie on a metal table. Not struggling when faceless men strapped her in. Not flinching when the restraints pinched at her skin.

Everything about her change of personality made sense. No, it wasn't _just_ Ward's betrayal that had changed her style, her training focus, her name, but it hadn't just been this Hydra reveal either. She felt herself slowly becoming stone as she sat on the cold table thinking of the ways someone she had trusted with her life multiple times had been lying, and she realized she must have gone through it before.

It wasn't just someone she trusted with her life, it was someone she cared for. It was just some silly crush really, but she saw the way he'd looked at her.

Had she ever touched him the way she'd always dreamt? Had her fantasies become reality? If they had, she'd have felt violated along with angry and distraught when finding out his true allegiances. Now she wasn't even permitted to be aware of how deep the betrayal had been driven.

Though it certainly felt forced into her heart.

"There's our girl."

Skye took her time moving her eyes to glare up at the newcomer. It was not Grant Ward, nor the thing that was currently inhibiting him. She didn't know this man.

"You slipping out of our grasp caused General Hive to become quite angry."

Skye raised a brow, attempting to muster up the best "wtf" look she could.

The white-haired man smiled. "Well, you clearly know he's no longer Grant Ward. Whether 'Hive' is his true moniker or not, it's the name he prefers. Mine, by the way, is Gideon Malick."

Skye didn't respond, instead deciding not to even bother looking at this creep and stared at the ceiling.

He began pacing, perhaps to show that he did not mind her initiating the broken eye contact. "You've heard of me, I presume?"

"Nope," Skye said pointedly, still staring up.

"Well then, your team has been keeping quite a lot of information from you since your… happenstance, with Hydra."

 _You can say that again,_ Skye thought.

She felt cool hands under her neck, not needing to look down to know he was examining the metal power restrictor. "You know, these aren't just practical, but they have an aesthetic appeal for super-slaves… perhaps we can keep them on. Tell you that despite our best efforts Hydra was unable to remove what SHIELD adorned you with, even if we're able to disable them."

Skye felt his knuckles graze her neck, back and forth, and he clearly waited to get a rise out of her. She couldn't help but scoff. "Could you get your nasty fingers away from me? My bite is worse than my bark, but I'd hate to go that far with _those_ dirty sausages."

He grinned in a way that showed he found nothing but amusement in the comment, but he did stop touching her. So maybe that was like… a point for both of them?

"I can see why Grant Ward liked you, even if you are SHIELD," he commented. "That hatred? That's some Hydra you have in you."

"I have no more Hydra in me than you have a chance of turning me to the dark side of the force," Skye spat. "I don't care if you take away my memories and raise me from a blank slate, I will _never_ be a slave to anyone."

"Whoa whoa whoa, who's talking about slaves?"

Skye felt relief for the briefest of moments at Ward's voice through a knee-jerk reaction, only making her despair at his presence that much worse.

"I don't want slaves," he said offhandedly. Shrugged. "Just soldiers. And those true to the cause, at that."

Skye scoffed. "You have to erase my memories and morals to even have a chance of making me believe in your _cause_. How is that truthful?"

He stepped in closer to her, looming. She saw the dark shadows under his eyes that used to be so lush. "Your mind has been poisoned, but I can suck the venom out," he explained, pressing a finger to her temple lightly. "If only those people on Maveth could have had the same opportunity… they couldn't see through their own misguided ideas, and they are dead for it!" he shouted. "But now I have the chance to clear your head; to make you understand."

He'd kept repeating that phrase, ' _make you understand_ ,' Skye had noted. She had somewhat been keeping track of it because every time he said it, something tugged at her… like something hidden, or forgotten.

Given her current predicament, she decided to pay extra attention to such lost feelings.

Malick walked over to the side and picked something up. "In order to make this convincing, we'll need a few props," Ward- or Hive, really- said simply, as the other man placed an oxygen mask over Skye's face. She played it cool but her worry spiked… she could be knocked out any moment now and not have any remnants of a clue as to who she was the next time she woke.

Malik then held out a scalpel to Ward. "Would you care to do the honors? I know how much you crave bloodshed."

Ward's eyes moved from the knife to her face. She scowled at him. She wasn't going to give this thing the satisfaction of seeing her fear.

"Bloodshed is also very tempting though, and I don't want to hurt my soldiers," he said harshly.

"Ah, it's just a scratch. Overall it will be helpful! Just to heighten her panic for when she comes to…"

"I'm aware," he growled through a short temper. "If we can convince her that others have caused her body pain, perhaps she will understand more easily," Ward said as though reciting. Skye felt her body tense as he snatched the scalpel from Malick with spite.

But there was that word again…

"What if I told you I already understand?" Skye asked, muffled through the mask but clearly audible. "I completely understand your reasoning, even if I don't agree with how you're going about it."

Ward - Hive, Hive! - tilted his head, and moved his hand to lift off the mask when Malick grabbed it. "Do not listen to her… she is trying to manipulate you. Through your host, no less! Don't let echoes of emotions take you over."

Hive squinted, anger crossing his face. Gideon had barely a second to recognize he had said the wrong thing. The inhuman twisted the man's arm.

"Do not, _ever_ , order me to do something," he scolded. "I am your leader, your god. If I want to hear this girl's attempted explanation, that's what I am going to _do_ ," he exclaimed, his voice escalating until it was a shout as he threw Malick down. The man gripped his arm, hissing in pain on the floor.

Hive removed the covering from Skye's face as she ripped her eyes away from the writhing man. "What were you saying, girl?"

"Just… that it makes sense. You want to help people see passed their own stupidity. I'm not one for violence but… you think it's necessary. You… obviously had a bad experience in the past with people not listening to you…?"

"And they killed each other off! Yes!" Hive exclaimed with childish excitement, placing his hands on her wrist cuffs and reminding Skye in what odd positions they were in. "You are so kind," he said, running a finger down her face. "You could help me. With our powers, we could become unstoppable."

She nodded shakily. "Exactly. You- you don't need to take any more of my memories."

Ward stopped caressing her. He backed up a foot or two. Stared like a snake.

He chuckled abruptly. "Would you look at you being all manipulative. You are trying to have me let you go so you may find a chance to best me, like you did to Grant Ward."

Skye's heart beat fast. "I didn't… or, I- I don't remember-"

"You _don't_ remember, do you?" Hive echoed slyly. "I wasn't there and you were, yet the memories belong to me and not you. That's ironic, isn't it?"

Skye wasn't sure how to respond. ' _Yep, sure is ironic! Glad we could share this laugh before you slice me up and steal my mind.'_

Instead she frowned and glared, her default brave face if she had one, while he stared at her. Though soon enough he stopped staring in favor of something else.

"What… what are you doing?" asked Malick as he picked himself up. He stared in disbelief as Hive released Skye from her restraints.

"Seeing how sincere she's being," said Ward, helping Skye to her feet. "I would rather have pure believers if given the choice," he said. "Besides, it's not as though she can do anything to hurt me. Even with her powers… I am unkillable."

"I see," said Malick lightly. Reading between the lines Skye could tell he meant "this is a horrible idea,' and was possibly rethinking allowing a creepy superhuman god run his organization. "And how do you purpose to find that out?

"Oh, just a simple test," he replied, turning to stare at her with an inscrutable smile.

Skye didn't like the sound of that, because she wasn't sure she had the same definition of 'simple' as this man.

* * *

Hive took her to a room similar to the one she'd just been in, but no longer was she the one on the operating table. Lincoln was.

He already had the mask on his face, causing his eyes to seem as though they'd grown extra large when they bulged at the sight of her. He was breathing harshly through the thing, made worse from the fresh incisions on his abdomen.

"Daisy?" he asked in puzzlement.

Before she could reply to him, Ward stepped forward. "Do you know this man?" he asked. She nodded.

"Before you took my memories, I knew him well," she said strongly, finally allowing herself to believe it. "We've been getting reacquainted lately." She looked to him fondly.

"Hopefully you didn't get too far because you'll have to start that over again," Ward said lightly. "Jason is about to procure his memories."

Skye watched a soldier come away from the shadows and step towards Lincoln, who automatically began to cringe away. The new man took down his Hydra mask, revealing a young face. Maybe younger than herself.

"Once his memory is gone he will understand just like you do," Ward told her. He came up behind her, pressing his hands into her shoulders. "You understand this sacrifice, right? It's not killing anyone. With this man we will find followers without bloodshed," he cooed, rubbing her shoulders gently. "If you can't handle this, I doubt you will be able to follow me at all."

"No, this makes sense," she said, watching the scene of horror unfolding before her as Jason pressed his fingers to Lincoln's head. She bit her lip, and glanced at Ward imploringly. "But, maybe he could-"

"Watch, Skye," Hive said, taking her chin and directing it Lincoln's way.

"Daisy-Skye, don't let him manipulate you like this!" he shouted. "You were the one fighting for Benny's rights, _inhuman's_ rights… don't I have a right to my memories?"

Ward's lips brushed against her ear. "Just watch… it doesn't take long."

"You would never have let this happen!" Lincoln shouted suddenly. "The old you would have fought. Daisy please, you're not a coward- ah!"

Lincoln's back arched off of the table and he screamed. Wisps of blue energy moved around his head and the Hydra agent's hands. They took their time moving away from him, as if they were difficult to pull out. Skye felt rooted to the spot, as she was impotent to help him she felt unable to move.

"How much do you want me to take?" Jason asked.

"Only take a year and a half. He hasn't been with SHIELD long and we wouldn't want him to be a novice with his powers."

 _Only a year and half._ Like they weren't sucking away his life. His relationships. It was less than she'd lost, but not by much.

Jason nodded, only leaving his fingers at the spot for a few more seconds. He tugged the last strand of whatever he was pulling from Lincoln with a great tug, and the transfer ended. Lincoln relaxed, unconscious.

Skye had to bite her lip to keep from reacting, though if she didn't open her mouth she wasn't sure if she would have cried or screamed.

"Glad you could see that," said Hive calmly. "Now we have to repeat with all the inhumans here. After that, all that's left is to get those SHIELD scientists to play along, and set up a good old Hydra rescue."

"What about the agents without powers?" Skye asked.

Ward smiled at her. "I know you're concerned about your friends. Don't worry, I haven't decided what purpose they'll serve best yet. I do have quite the appetite, though."

Skye stood still, freezing in a jolt of thought. He meant that metaphorically, right? Surely he didn't mean he'd really have them as a main course…

Right?

"Right," she said, finally gulping down the lump in her throat and trying desperately hard to think of a winning argument for how they could be useful to Hydra, preferably without getting their minds blanked in the process. Or worse, apparently. She turned back to Lincoln. "And him? Are you going to take that collar thing off for when he wakes up or…?"

"Not just yet. We want to make sure he isn't too spooked when he returns to the living."

"Oh, makes sense," said Skye. She hid her emotions deep, but disappointment welled up. She needed to see them take it off. She needed to see it so she'd know how to get the one off of _herself._

Hive's eyes moved up her body, stopping at the gold around her neck. "You would have liked to see that, wouldn't you?" he asked. Skye didn't like the darkness his eyes were procuring, and had to force herself not to step back. "Wondering if it would be easy to take it off yourself," he stressed, poking her in the chest so she stumbled.

"No," she spat defensively. "I mean, I don't exactly _love_ having a collar on that takes away my abilities-"

"Do you think I am an idiot like your little boy toy, just because I look like him?" he asked, stepping forward and far too into her personal bubble. His voice had gained a rumble to it. "I am a _god_ you insignificant insect."

Well, sheesh. _Harsh._

He began advancing on her until Skye was forced to back out of the room. There was murder in his eyes. She glanced around herself, long hallways stretching in either direction.

Strangely, he smiled. It wasn't reassuring though. Far from it. You know that creepy smile with the slow head tilt that serial killer clowns from nightmares tend to do before slicing someone to bits? This was it.

"I don't care how highly this meat suit thought of you," Hive hissed as the unnerving smile remained on his face. "I don't care if these echoes of the dead are tricking me into thinking you're the second coming, for that's _me_! And I know exactly what to do with you now."

This was an abrupt turn Skye didn't anticipate she'd have to deal with. Not if she'd made it this far. Not if she'd already sacrificed Lincoln's memories.

"I'm going to pick your friends apart piece by piece. Skin them while they still have their voices to scream, the symphony of which will chime through your ears as your powerless body is held beneath my boot," he gloated. "You will _all_ be put in your rightful places of my hierarchy, that of this new age."

Throughout this detailed proclamation, horrifying as it should have been, something sprang to Skye's mind that could be counted as a somewhat surprising first thought.

"You're definitely better with visual imagery than Ward," she muttered.

He grinned. "I'll go one better. After you witness your friends' deaths, I won't even allow you to keep the memory of them. I'm going to rip every happy memory of this found family away from you until you're nothing more than an isolated orphan once again. _That's_ when you'll be chomping at the bit to serve me."

Skye blinked. "What's the point of making me watch if I won't remember it?"

"Well, I'll be able to remember your face when it happens," he said, tilting his head eerily. His eyes were wide with excitement at the prospect. "We don't have to take away _my_ happy memories."

"Valid point... for a _sadist,"_ stressed Skye. "One problem, though."

He rolled his eyes. "Yes?"

"I've seen a lot of zombie movies. Honestly, someone probably should have cut me off. They were my _thing_ back in high school. Actually,I must have missed like twenty episodes of the Walking Dead because of this mind blank deal… so thanks for that."

Well, yay! Success on the surprise front. Hive's face finally cleared of the grin and blanked until he appeared as confused as a lost corpse-puppy.

"What?" he inquired softly. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Skye glanced around to make sure the coast was clear. "Well it's because of those that I'm like, ninety perfect sure reanimated dead bodies aren't very fast."

Before Skye could take in the lovely expression of confusion on his face for a moment longer she bolted, sprinting down the hallway. It turned out to be a very long hallway. She did not appreciate this, because Skye would rather have been out of this guy's range of sight. She felt herself move impossibly faster at the terrifying growl of frustration that tore from his mouth and something that sounded like high speed wins on the rise (was that odd, or random? Skye's brain was kind of one-track at the moment). Just as she turned the corner, she heard bullets fire her way. Skye shielded her head.

She slowed down only slightly so she wouldn't pass out from exhaustion when she was in another corridor. Skye moved her hand to her shoulder, clutching it as she heaved. Ow.

Why ow?

"Oh," she breathed.

She'd been shot.

Ok, more like grazed but still… there was blood and it hurt.

More bullets ricocheted off the wall and Skye began to run once again, only stopping once she reached the door to the inhuman's training room. She took in the sight as she filled with hope, accompanied by worry.

"Oh please let this work…" she muttered to herself as she burst forward, still holding her bleeding arm. She went into the observation room, to which a red light promptly flashed.

"Technology: unverified. Technology: disabled."

Skye felt a tiny spark near her neck. Immediately after the shock, she thrust her hand out from where it had been holding her shoulder and towards a table across the room.

It flung up against the wall.

" _Yes,"_ she murmured to herself in relief, realizing her powers had been restored. Now to just get Hive in here…

"Skyyyye," she heard the man call. "Let's not play anymore games. You've been shot, Skye. There's no hiding from me now."

Of course, Skye forgot the dude was a freaking _bloodhound._

She began to smear her blood all over the walls, dabbing the red liquid from her shoulder and using it as demented finger paint. She let herself into the training room to prepare for him.

Where she was met with three faces.

"Daisy!" called Talia, or Tilly. One of them.

"What is going on?" asked the other. "There was an alarm, and then we were locked inside…"

Benny walked up from a seat he had in the corner. "Daisy, I'm sorry for how I acted. I- I can do better. I promise," he told her sincerely, before his eyes widened at the sight of her shoulder.

One of the twins gasped. "You're bleeding!"

Skye couldn't be bothered to look. "We're in trouble guys. I hate to ask this of you, but I need help. I know you're still learning, and I can't imagine how difficult it must be to try and control your powers. But there is a bad man coming-"

"And you want us to blast him?" asked a twin.

"Yes!" exclaimed Skye.

The other girl covered her face with her hands through a gasp. "You want us to kill someone?" she asked in disbelief.

"He's not actually a _someone,_ he's a something. A something that can't really die so, no, I guess I'm not asking you to kill him. He's actually already dead. Or the body is dead, but it would be great if you could try to kill the thing that's not dead and can't be killed! If he could actually die and you shot enough power to do that, but since he can't maybe the not dying amount of power will be just enough to..."

She trailed off, knowing that the blank faces before her didn't have a clue what she was going on about.

Skye heard the observation room door open with an echoing thud. Hive was closing in.

"Look, I can't explain just…" she sighed. "Do what you can but more importantly, do _not_ let him hurt you.

Skye didn't think they were in too much danger of dying considering they were valuable inhumans, but he _had_ shot at her.

Hive forced himself into the room with two Hydra agents flanking him, guns raised at the inhumans. He tilted his head, observing the scene. His lips twitched.

"More participants for my army…" he mused. His head jerked over towards her in a strange motion. Quick, similar to how bird or reptiles moved. "Thank you for leading me here, _Skye."_

"They aren't yours," she growled, raising her hands. "Leave them be."

"Come quietly so we won't have to hurt you or your friends. You know we don't want to hurt gifteds, but I will if I must."

Skye pressed out her good arm and vibrated the soldiers' guns to smithereens quick as she could. Then, she blasted all three men against the walls. The two Hydra guys were knocked out immediately, but Hive just laughed.

"And now you _can't_ hurt them," Skye said strongly. She stood in front of the others, hoping to work as their shield if it came to it.

He stopped laughing. "I must say that I'm slightly hurt you think I'm not more resourceful than that. Kudos to getting that inhibitor switched off, though."

"Thanks," she sneered, and turned to the others. "Now!"

They began using their powers full force, all three of them. Ice, heat and wind. Hive's reaction made it seem as though he were being tickled.

"It's not working!" shouted (probably) Tilly.

"We have to destroy him!" screamed Skye. "Remember what I said-"

It was then that Hive donned a serious business face. He raised his hands, and the room began to grow dark.

"What's happening!" screamed Benny.

"I'm scared!" shouted the other twin.

"You can do it!" screeched Skye. "Just remember what I said: you are the only ones who can do this!"

They were clearly terrified and fearing for their lives, but they nodded shakily to one another and moved forward. Skye went with them, pushing her powers forward but more so she would not leave them alone. Benny shouted, his power reverberating out of his mouth and hitting Hive in bursts of wind.

But Hive's storm continued to manifest. Clouds began forming on the ceiling as sand began to blow around them. It was difficult to see. He was getting weaker though, she thought. The sand that was clouding their vision had an origin she hadn't noticed at first: it was made of his skin, leaving only bone.

More and more flew off the man and into the air to create a hazy blanket of mist around their eyes.

So no, Skye could not see if Talia was able to access Ward's blood, make it boil to a point that would cause any normal man to beg for death. She could not tell if when she was done, Tilly ran forward to freeze his skin (Skye was pretty sure the ice twin was Tilly…), the rapid cooling only making the man lose his viscoelasticity and harden that much quicker.

Though in the amount of time it would have taken to do those things, the storm began to subside. In the wake of what had once been Hive (who'd once been Ward) stood a statue.

It hadn't been Ward for a long time though. He was long dead. Though she could not understand why he had done all those terrible things, the things that made her team wanted him dead worse than the devil and why if that was all true even that creature was affected by his feelings for her, she knew there was only one thing to do.

With one powerful push of her powers, he shattered into the air as shards small as dust. It mingled with the remaining sand in the room.

"Was… was that it?" panted Benny. Skye gave him a strangely mangled look.

"It?" Talia voiced her disbelief. "Was that not difficult enough for you-?"

"Ah!" shrieked Tilly. "What is _that_?"

There was a dark shadow moving, perhaps slithering, across the ground. It slipped under the door. Skye bolted to open the metal hatch as soon as she saw its escape, but whatever the thing had been was nowhere in sight.

That was probably going to bite her in the ass sometime.

They had other problems for now.

"That wasn't 'it', actually," Skye said strongly. Her adrenaline pumped through her like a drug and she could barely feel the dull ache in her arm. "The Cocoon's been infiltrated, though I think they might have underestimated how many people they'd need to bring based on that _thing_ being so confident." Skye pointed at the broken remains. "So if you're up for it, I think we can take it back with just the four of us."

Tilly's mouth sprung open. "We can't… I don't…"

"We can barely control our powers, let alone take down a group of soldiers!" Talia crossed her arms. "No way!"

"Come on girls," Benny said, stepping up. "Daisy has been helping us since day one. She knows what she's talking about."

The twins shared a matching nervous expression, but Talia sighed. "You're right. Daisy hasn't ever let us down."

Tilly nodded. "We're with you, Daisy."

Skye gulped, feeling for a moment that she didn't deserve this praise. This companionship. Maybe Daisy could do those things, could be held accountable to never let someone down, but she wasn't Daisy.

Except… wasn't she?

That was her. With a little more experience maybe, but it was still her. It was Skye's heart with more training to get her body and mind up to the task. Maybe she would become a better leader, a better soldier, but with these people to back her up and the way she'd just fought, Skye felt confident.

She felt like she was being the best of herself.

"Come on you guys," said Daisy. "Let's go be super heroes."

* * *

 **Author's Note:** This really needed another once over but it's looong and I couldn't be bothered. Feel free to let me know of mistakes. And THANK YOU AND I LOVE the reviews! Awesome, thank you so much!

One chapter left!


	5. I Want My Tears Back

Skye knew there was a mess to clean up, but the others had told her to rest. That they could handle it, that she'd done enough.

She didn't feel like she'd done nearly enough. Yes, her and the new recruits were able to take back the Cocoon and get everyone out, but that was just Skye fixing her own mistakes. Now Hydra knew where the Cocoon was, it had to be evacuated…

Like she'd mentioned. A great, big ol' mess.

One she wasn't entirely sure she could help with anyway unless lending a hand for a mop or broom, but she had to try.

"Jemma?"

"Hello, Skye," she said with an inviting smile.

Skye was so close to correcting her to Daisy, it shocked even herself. She'd not only become accustomed to the name she'd almost had an epiphany about it earlier. It represented a better version of herself, stronger, as when she'd felt brave and empowered. Now she mostly felt guilt, and she wasn't sure she wanted to sully this new identity with it just yet.

Not to mention it would be hella confusing to all her friends.

"How's your shoulder?" Simmons asked.

Skye wasn't really paying any mind to the inquiry and looked into the next room, visible through the glass walls. It was the room for medical exams and where Skye thought Lincoln would be resting.

"Where's Lincoln?" Skye asked.

Jemma's hand fled to hide behind her neck, rubbing it awkwardly. "Oh… we had to move him."

"He's awake?"

Simmons nodded. "And a bit overwhelmed. He knows all about SHIELD, but only the horrific version your mother corrupted his mind with." Skye scrunched her face in confusion and thought. "…which, you of course have _no_ idea about," Jemma exclaimed through clear frustration, sitting down hard on a vacant lab chair. It wheeled her away slightly.

Skye stepped closer. "It's ok. I mean… you can always tell me about it." She paused. "You can talk about what happened to you, too."

Jemma looked up nervously. "What's Fitz told-"

"No one's told me anything." Skye shrugged, throwing out a melancholy smile. "I can pick up on when my friend has some emotional turmoil."

Skye thought Jemma might cry from the way her lips pressed together. Instead she just sighed, allowing the emotions fizzle out like a doused flame. "I may take you up on that sometime," she muttered, looking away.

Skye tilted her head. "Jemma, are we… before I lost my memory were we… still friends?"

The scientist glanced up with a puzzled look. "Of course," she said sternly. "What gave you the idea we weren't?"

"I don't know," she said. "This heart to heart feels kind of… stale."

Now Jemma's head tilted on its axis as she stared blindly ahead. "I suppose we may not be quite as close, but that's due to occupation. You're rarely inside with us anymore on field operations and are oftentimes training."

"I'm sorry."

"There's nothing to apologize about, honestly," she said. "Just because real life gets in the way of our girl time bonding doesn't mean we don't care for one another just as much."

Skye smiled. "Good. I would never want to sacrifice our friendship," she said. "And whenever you're ready to talk-"

"I'm not, just yet," she said. "Besides, I could use your help in another area."

Skye nodded eagerly. "Anything."

* * *

Lincoln wasn't happy.

If you couldn't tell from the way he was slamming himself and his shocks against the walls, you could tell by the way he glared at whomever had the unfortunate luck of standing just outside to watch him. Or you were blind.

Seriously, it was easy to tell the dude was _pissed._

Skye walked up to the glass tentatively, her arm crossed as she held the other with one hand. He didn't stop the glaring, or the electric shocks, as she approached.

"Hey," she tried quietly, to which he promptly ignored her. "Hey. _Hey_. Lincoln, stop!"

That got his attention, the motion of raising an arm for another attack abruptly halted. "Stop using my name like you know me! You kidnapped me, SHIELD agent."

"That would be a little odd, considering you live here."

He raised a brow. "I would never live in this tiny box."

It took Skye a moment to realize he was talking about the containment chamber, as at first she was going to rebuttal that they each had decent sized rooms in the Playground. "Oh. No, no, not that thing, but in this base." She paused. "The only reason they put you in there is because you're freaking out."

"Because you kidnapped me!"

"Wow, someone took a u-turn in the conversation. Didn't you hear me? You. Live. _Here_."

He pressed himself against the glass. "I wouldn't live here willingly, to be an experiment. So whether it happened now or before I was definitely captured and brought here."

"Except you weren't, because you're a SHIELD agent too. Or, almost. Your evaluation is soon…"

He scoffed. "I'm sure I was dying to recruit with this evil place."

"It's not evil. I promise."

Scoff number two, coming up. "Oh yeah? And why should I believe a word you say?"

"Because what happened to you happened to me," she explained softly. "My memories were taken, but you were there to help me through it. I lost two years." She looked up at him. "And it wasn't SHIELD, it was our own kind that did it to us. An Inhuman."

" _Our_ own kind?" Lincoln pointedly asked.

Skye rolled her eyes, realizing she'd have to demonstrate to get the angry Pikachu on her side. She pushed out her hand and shook a cabinet, some chairs, a few objects on shelves – something might have fallen.

Lincoln's eyes widened and grew soft, releasing some of the pent up anger as he placed a gentle hand to the glass. Skye pursed her lips, hating to see him forced inside there. Contained because he was scared.

She opened the door.

It made a prolonged hissing noise as it widened, the airtight seal releasing as she stepped up to the threshold.

"What are you doing?" Lincoln asked.

"Showing you some trust," she said truthfully. "You're really not a prisoner. We just couldn't have you hurting people or leave without an explanation. Now that you know… you can of course go. It would be pretty stupid, though," she added bluntly.

She'd coaxed a grin from him, _nice._ "Would it?" he asked, crossing his arms.

"Yup. We're your best chance at getting your memories back, and at the very least knowing what is going on in the world lately."

"You think we can get our memories back?" he asked hopefully.

"I… don't know, if I'm being honest. I hope so," she said. She felt compelled to take his hand, but instead let her own rest on his shoulder in a friendly gesture. "But if not, I kind of think I'm off to a good start making memories, considering you're in them."

He smirked. "Good for you, because mine weren't going too well before you showed up."

"So they're getting better… think you'll stay?"

"You're making a pretty compelling argument. And when I mentioned Afterlife earlier… some scientist told me it was gone. Is that true?"

Afterlife… ooooh the Inhumans' old home. _Had_ it been destroyed? Jemma probably told him that, so it was probably true, right?

"Yeees," she said, as unconfident as ever. Lincoln could tell. "Everyone scattered, I think."

"Did you stay there?"

"I've been there, I think," she said. "Would have been after the memories I can currently remember." She tapped her head.

Lincoln seemed more reassured than frustrated at her naivety, most likely finding comfort in the shared issues. He tucked a hair behind her ear suddenly, but recoiled his hand immediately.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"That's ok," she said simply. "You probably have an instinct to how you'd normally act with your memories. I did the same with my powers."

"Huh. Alright then…" He snorted. "It is a bit weird to be invading your personal space before I know your name though."

"I haven't told you my name yet?" she exclaimed.

He chuckled. "Nope."

"Oh, dang, I'm so featherbrained."

Lincoln stared. "So do you wanna tell me, or…?"

"Oh, um, Daisy," she said.

Had she just referred to herself as Daisy? Well, duh, yes. Why now? _That_ she wasn't entirely sure about. Maybe it was because they'd told her she met Lincoln after gaining her abilities. So it sort of slipped out.

Maybe. Or maybe it was just the instinct thing. She was trying to lead him in the right direction and lately, it seemed the version of herself with powers and confidence and leadership was Daisy. Maybe she was feeling more like herself -her newer self… her Daisy self? – and so instinct took over.

Maybe. Maybe. If, but _, maybe._ Clearly she was just making stuff up.

"Well, Daisy, it is nice to meet you… again," Lincoln said, extending a hand.

She pretended to scrutinize the gesture. "Promise you won't do your shockey thing?"

He raised a brow. "How mean do you think I am?"

"Not mean, per say. Maybe just a little… charged?"

"Hah-hah," he muttered. She flashed him a wicked grin before taking his hand and shaking it roughly.

It was this prime opportunity that Hunter popped into the containment unit. "Skye! Jemma sent me to tell you the good news. We caught a Hydra agent!"

Daisy dropped Lincoln's hand, giving him a sideways look of uncertainty.

"Um… cool. Thanks for the update."

"No no, it's important! He's the Inhuman that took your memories."

Lincoln and Daisy shared a second look, one filled with much more intrigue.

"And…?" said Lincoln, moving his head a bit impatiently.

"He says he'll give them back to you!"

"He can really do that?" asked Lincoln.

"He's _willing_ to do that?" stressed Daisy.

"Yeah! Not a bad guy, really. Had a chat with him… we're gonna set up a football get together I think."

Daisy frowned in confusion, but shook her head. Maybe Hunter's antics would make more sense to her once she got her memories back.

(Spoiler alert: they wouldn't.)

"Whenever you two are ready, he's down in the lab with Simmons."

"Great, we'll go now," Daisy said, grabbing Lincoln's hand to pull him along. "Thanks Hunter."

"Not a problem," he chimed, turning he began to walk away. "Can't say I'm looking forward to the rocks and shocks you two's shagging does to the base, but it'll be good to see things back to normal."

Then he was gone. And Daisy was left red-cheeked and mortified.

Lincoln appeared similar, though she couldn't quite look him the eye yet. So… from what her peripherals picked up, or as much as she could sense.

"Uh, Daisy-?"

"Look, I don't know any more about that than you do because I woke up without any memories of you and trust me, we haven't done that since so it's really not anything to ask about. To me. I guess it's possible I had some girl talk with Jemma…" she mused.

He blinked. "No… I was, um, I was actually going to ask... who's Skye?"

Her mouth gaped while her mind caught up to how stupid she must have sounded. Once she was all filled in on playing the fool, she sighed.

"Let's see if we can get those lost memories back in our heads… might be easier than _that_ explanation."

* * *

Daisy was Daisy again. The Hydra dude put a hand to her head and suddenly she felt like he'd smashed a pound cake (or a _ten_ pound cake…) inside of her mind. The memories she'd just made were still there, but she remembered everything she'd forgotten.

It. Was. Weird.

When she'd lost the memories, her complete swap of personality was only noted by clues left for herself. Her closet and her name, her friends acting a bit odd.

She was a lighthearted hacker two days ago. She'd learned about Hydra, learned about Ward, and now….

SMACK!

Two years of training, of grief, of memories of her father and mother and loving them both only to lose them after brief moment of knowing them. Her first kill, her most recent kill, her awakening to Andrew's situation and the hate of so, so many people who despised Inhumans was all crammed in there.

But even with all that squished in the small corner space of her brain, she felt ok.

Yes, she did stumble because it actually felt very strange, but she'd learned to deal with those things as they were dolled out to her.

She was more of a leader, but she'd learned that she shouldn't erase Skye. She could be a soldier or in charge and still be lighthearted, joke and still be sincere when it matter. In fact, being all doom and gloom was probably bad for her mental health, and the whole team could do with some signature-Skye sarcasm.

This was not the time for it though.

"I am so, _so_ sorry Benny," she told him. He wilted like a flower when she'd broken the news of his wife. Daisy had prepared for a storm, to knock him out if necessary. But he did that himself.

"I can't…" He fell to the floor against the wall, covered his eyes and sobbed. Daisy knelt down, placing a hand to his back. When consoling someone, the first thing you'd think of to say would be "it's ok."

It wasn't ok.

"I wasn't there with her. I couldn't… it isn't fair!"

"It's not fair at all," Daisy said simply. For long moments all she could hear was his muffled sniffling.

"I didn't want these damn powers, Daisy," he said into his arm. "I just… I want her."

All Daisy could do was sigh and pat his back a bit more. She'd fend off her own tears as they weren't hers to shed. This wasn't her pain.

Benny probably didn't need powers. Maybe if they'd manifested earlier in life… but what could he do now? Learn to live with them, mainly. Maybe Daisy could show him they were meaningful, that it was who he was, but not today.

Today he could just cry.

* * *

"How'd it go?" Lincoln asked as she closed the door to Benny's bunk.

She shrugged. "Fairly traumatic."

"Damn."

"I had to fix the mess I made… even if it was a naïve version of me that did it," she said, then gave him a once over. He was wearing a combat suit. "You ready for your evaluation?" she asked.

"Ready as ever, I guess. I feel pretty good about it."

"I did train you well," she said, leaning closer until she landed her lips on his to give him a small kiss. "For good luck."

"Thanks. What're you up to?"

She crossed her arms. "Dunno. I've got some down time. Maybe head back to base and try to follow up on this Hive thing."

"You don't think he's gone?" he asked.

"Full disclosure? I kind of think he's… a worm."

Lincoln shook his head. "What?"

"I think he's an Inhuman parasite that took over Ward's body. I just couldn't tell the difference, of _course,"_ she muttered, rolling her eyes at her own stupidity.

"You couldn't have known," he said dismissively, as though it were that simple and obvious.

"Yeah, but then I put you in danger. Which… have a mentioned I'm sorry about?"

"Only around three hundred times."

"Oh, good. Only about two fifty left then."

He kissed her again, pressing his lips far firmer than their previous lip lock she'd initiated.

"No more guilt, ok?"

"Can't promise that," she said truthfully. "But I'll make an effort, for you."

"That's all I ask."

"Good, cause that's all you get," she said with some snark, allowing any somber awkwardness to dissipate. "And get a move on to your eval! I want to see those flying colors."

"Can't promise they'll be flying, but hopefully we'll see some colors. Or sparks."

"You'd better, or you are going to have one pissed off professor," she teased.

"That's endearing… maybe I'll just have to fail," he mused wryly.

She chuckled. "Beat it, Campbell," she told him with a smile and a little push. He huffed a laugh and kept moving while she headed towards the exit, her mind swimming in revelations from the passed couple days.

Fitz had once explained to Daisy that brains were like a computer. It's how he'd managed to reconnect old 'files' he had lost; how he'd been able to improve after his head trauma. She'd scrutinized the comparison at first, but maybe Daisy's brain really was like a computer. Skye had certainly come up with that interpretation the moment she'd started looking into the matter after her brain was messed with.

She chuckled to herself as she walked out of the Cocoon, the way she was referring to her own state of mind as another person. Maybe it was more like… an old operating system.

IOS Daisy was an updated version of Skye.9.0. Skye had been a free spirit, and as much as Daisy loved herself, she had been a little naïve (as all younger versions of oneself are) and Daisy liked herself better now. Uncovering her roots had given her opportunities she'd never gotten being a foster kid. Skye was the name she'd given herself out of necessity but…. Daisy was the name she chose. She'd picked it once she felt her connection to the meaning behind it.

Yes, _Hive,_ skies are certainly limitless and full of vast opportunity and ways to grow. Grow into something beautiful… but not always delicate.

So watch out, Hydra General Hive. This flower might have let you burn her twice, but she's still standing in resilient survival.

You don't want to see the fight a third flame brings out in her.

 **The end.**

* * *

 **Author's Note:** Hey friends, sorry for the delay.

I hope you've enjoyed the story. It stemmed from the thought that Skye has changed so much, even Chloe Bennet says Daisy is a different character. I wanted to explore how though Daisy has changed, she actually has been more of her "Skye" self than when she was trying desperately hard to be a SHIELD agent after her hardcore training with May before she got her powers. In a way, those drastic differences between her hacker self and soldier self were her trying to find her true self which was "awakened" with her powers, in my eyes. I felt the show did not do justice to this metamorphosis and I hope I've been able to allow us to get in her head.

Also I thought it would be cool to see how Skye would react to her S3 "completely different" self. Just for fun.

Please review to let me know your thoughts!


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